Data centers are increasingly under stress to provide proper ventilation to the equipment that it uses. The equipment design provides for adequate air circulation and heat dissipation. However, over time the conditions of the ambient atmosphere, in which the equipment operates may cause the heat dissipation capability to be degraded by reduced air flow or reduced heat transfer capability. In order to properly assess the thermal characteristics of data center equipment and its environment it is important to have measurements of the key thermal properties that govern these characteristics, air inlet side values of ventilation air temperatures and ventilation air flow rates and air outlet side values of air flow rate, air temperatures and heat dissipation. Inlet side characteristics are generally not too difficult to obtain, but tedious nonetheless less. However the outlet side is much more difficult as there is generally no common monitoring software on units of electronic equipment that provide this important information. So the question is how to quickly and easily capture these key characteristics of an electronic device such that the thermal/power profile of a data center can be displayed.
The ability to obtain the necessary air flow and temperature data is further complicated by the necessity to do so without interrupting the operation of the specific equipment or the system of which it is a part. The operator of the data center will be reluctant to allow any testing that could interrupt or even disturb operation of any component part of the system. Thus, any test equipment used must not impair continuing system operation. The measurement of air flow and temperature must be accomplished with any connected cables and wiring in place.